Bee is for BLESSED ...: Zoe's first "official" road trip: VEGAS!

Since we won't be spending Christmas with my dad, we decided to take a road trip to Vegas for a pre-Christmas celebration. Although we take mini road trips to LA every weekend, this trip is Zoe's first official road trip! Since she stopped liking her carseat once she started walking I was a little afraid to take her on the road for that long of a stretch. Luckily, we didn't leave LA until 10:30 pm on Friday night so she slept the entire way!

We arrived in Vegas around 3 am and my dad was sooooo happy to see her. She woke up and played with him for a little while before knocking out for the rest of the evening. The next day we went to Hash House A Go Go (Mike and I have been wanting to try this place since we saw it featured on the Food Network). The food was pretty good and the portions were ginormous. The restaurant prides itself on serving "twisted farm food" and it pretty much stayed to that theme. We had a smore cappuccino, sage fried chicken benedict, corned beef hash, pancakes and french toast. Needless to say we all needed a nap afterwards ... later that evening, we took Zoe to The Forum Shoppes at Caesar's Palace to visit the FAO Schwartz store and to see the aquarium. Unfortunately, the FAO Schwartz Store had been replaced by an H&M!!! Zoe didn't seem to mind ... she was so fascinated by all the sounds and sights of Vegas. For dinner, we hit up the Wicked Spoon Buffet at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. OMG. The food was delicious and very luxurious! I made a mistake of giving Zoe some fried rice early in the meal. She didn't want to eat her normal boring baby food after that and had a semi meltdown when I refused to give her anymore (note to self: do not give Zoe yummy "real" food until after she's eaten her own food and you're completely done eating your meal).

The next day, we all went to mass at St. Joseph (a beautiful church!) followed by a Filipino meal at Salo Salo grill. After lunch, we headed back to my dad's place to pack up and say our goodbyes. It was great to be able to spend time with my dad. Even though we won't get to see him for the holidays, the fact that we were able to spend quality time with him is more than enough. I know he was extremely happy to have all his kids there and of course his favorite -- Zoe.

We left Vegas around 4 pm and Zoe slept up until Barstow. We ate at Del Taco and then hit the road only to have Zoe get antsy around Victorville. Who can blame the poor kid, right? I would hate to be stuck in a seat facing backward the entire time ... so to calm her down I had the whole car singing Zoe's favorite song "Old McDonald" ... when that stopped working, we started singing Christmas songs ... when that stopped working, I started feeding her puffs ... and finally, we were HOME (note to self: try to schedule road trips in conjunction with Zoe's bed time).

All in all we had a wonderful time in Vegas. It certainly wasn't your typical wild and crazy Vegas experience, but it was just as fun =)